Gravel a concrete patio - help

[Phil_h]

I have a large ugly concrete patio which is too big (cost wise) to cover with slabs so I am going to put gravel down but wondering on the best way to do the edging so it does not drop of into the lawn.

I am thinking of using pressure treaded wood battens.

Drilling down into the concrete and putting a bolt down through the batten in the small concrete hole and somehow securing it but not sure how.?

Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks,

Phil

 

[bhwh]

I may be wrong but my understanding is that this should not be done. The basic rule being 'rigid on rigid and flexible on flexible'. In other words, the loose gravel on top of hard concrete would not be good.

Read this:

http://www.pavingexpert.com/faq_gravel01.htm

 

[Thermo]

what size are the battens?

with regard putting gravel on, if its only foot traffic (which i assume it is with a patio) then its not a problem, you may get the odd bare spot sometimes, but you just rake the stuff level again.

 

[Phil_h]

The patio is 65 Sq Meters. The people who had the house before us had a big touring caravan parked on part of it next to the garage.

Eventually I would like to put slabs down and maybe get rid of some of the concrete not decided yet but would prefer to wait a couple of years and get a some really good slabs, which in turn will end up costing fair bit!

Plenty of other things in the house need doing first!


So in the meantime I looking at just putting some gravel down (cotswold stone chippings) which we have found for £40 a ton.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190138797663

Not bought any battens yet.

Not sure how to secure these to the concrete, maybe masonry screws?


Any other cheap method of stopping the gravel / chipping dropping of the patio on to the lawn?

Photo of patio
View media item 1260

 

[Wandle2]

Hi Phil
We had hideous concrete in our garden too and I put gravel down instead and it looks much nicer. It's much better though if you can hack up the gravel with a pick-axe first, which is what I did. It's really worth doing as it would be rather odd having lose gravel on top of concrete. Also, it rather takes away the point of the gravel, which is that rain runs through it and it doesn't cause flooding.
Once you have the concrete up you just need to level off the ground. I just put the gravel (ordinary pea shingle from B&Q which doesn't cost much) on top of the earth.
Re the edging, this definitely is necessary, otherwise you get little stones in your lawn/flower bed, or whatever is next to the gravel.
I laid down an edging of bricks in twos - two laid horizontally, then two vertically, which makes a nice pattern and is easy to do if you need to make corners. You just dig out the earth a little to make it level with the ground, allowing a bit extra for the gravel, which raises it up a bit.
This is certainly cheaper, this gravel and brickwork, than having paving stones and it's environmentally friendly too.

 

[Deluks]

It sounds like you've already made your mind up about the fate of the concrete, why not just hire a breaker for the weekend and be shot of it?


If you want to continue your quest though, I'd suggest fixing down some 3x3 fence posts to the perimeter, or laying a single course of some decorative brick. Or fix down some treated 3x2, with a length of decking board screwed to the top for decor purposes.


You could drill and rawlplug the concrete, use plugless frame anchors, or get an exterior adhesive, Sticks Like **** or Ceresit PL to fix down whatever you decide.

 

[Phil_h]

Or fix down some treated 3x2, with a length of decking board screwed to the top for decor purposes.

Thanks for the idea about putting decking on top of the treated 3x2. Going to do that.